Canonical’s next move after $32 million Ubuntu Edge crowfunding failure: Find a real phone, put your damn system on it AND JUST SHIP SOMETHING ALREADY

I’m not surprised about the failure of Canonical/Ubuntu’s $32 million “give us $700, we promise to give you a phone packed with unproven, yet-to-be-seen technology sometime next year” campaign.

And it’s not success wrapped in failure. It’s just failure.

First of all, $700 is a lot of money.

Second, Canonical is a company that has done a lot — Ubuntu has certainly (and sometimes even successfully) gone its own way in the Linux desktop, server and cloud spaces. Live CDs, more drivers, a dependable release cycle for a Debian-based distribution, a huge and helpful community. Those are all great. But that seems so … 2010. For Canonical anyway.

Canonical has promised a whole lot and delivered almost none of it:

Ubuntu TV (I don’t think anybody ever wanted it …)

That dockable Ubuntu-running Android phone from a couple years or so ago (seems eerily like Ubuntu Edge)

Ubuntu Touch preloaded on a phone or tablet (they’re promising this “early next year”)

Meaningful numbers of preloaded Ubuntu desktops (despite the claim by SABDFL Mark Shuttleworth of high percentages of Ubuntu-running PCs, you can barely find them in the real world)

The multicore Ubuntu ARM server (Remember that thing at the last [or nearly last] “real” UDS? It wasn’t a Ubuntu-made product, but they did feature it, and I don’t see it)

All we do have is Unity — a desktop environment optimized for touch and tablet with few to no devices to show for it unless you can geek out and install it yourself.

Unity is a big achievement. I don’t blame Canonical for jumping off of GNOME. I knew they’d go their own way when they couldn’t control the upstream.

But this Ubuntu Edge thing was over the top. Asking tens of thousands to part with $700 today for a phone next year that promises cutting-“Edge” hardware unproven by any manufacturer — and all this from a company that has NEVER SHIPPED A SINGLE HARDWARE PRODUCT?

(Unless I’m missing something, Canonical has never shipped hardware of any kind.)

No. No. No!

Canonical can fix this. Here’s what they should do today:

Find an existing phone — a Nexus something-or-other — that they can get in quantity

Pound Ubuntu Touch into this device so everything runs as it should. Order up these devices by the thousands, flashed with Ubuntu Touch and ready for market

Repeat for the tablet form factor

And then sell the damn things

Once again if I’m not being clear:

Develop for — and sell — the hardware that’s available today. Just do it. Do it. Stop asking for multi-millions in advance and START FOCUSING ON DEVICES YOU CAN SHIP TODAY

About Steven Rosenberg

You didn’t get the purpose of Ubuntu Edge. It was never meant as a mass-market device. Canonical won’t compete with hardware-manufacturers. The Edge would have been a showcase and testing device for the convergent software yet to be developed.

Ubuntu Touch is not yet ready. They can’t ship anything today and won’t ship quantities of Ubuntu Phones and Tablets. Your conclusion misses the point of the campaign and the plans of Canonical.

They want to get Hardware Partners and various Hardware Vendors to ship Ubuntu in the future.

http://stevenrosenberg.net/blog Steven Rosenberg

But they didn’t ship anything, and they won’t.

They also made anything that comes out now seem like a letdown in comparison with a phantom product that never was.

Oh, and where is my flying car?

Philip Poupart

I couldn’t agree more. I’m tired of the “noise” as well.

surja

Agree completely.

2eurocents

$700 a lot of money? Mark says, “pffff, you annoying little people!!”

kaddy080

Well said bro

Dang Ren Bo

I agree with all the vaporware (and have said similar things before), but you’re wrong here:
“Meaningful numbers of preloaded Ubuntu desktops (despite the claim by SABDFL Mark Shuttleworth of high percentages of Ubuntu-running PCs, you can barely find them in the real world)”
These are available, but probably not near you. Head to East and SE Asia, and you’ll find them all in IT malls. Of course, they are basically just shells being sold so that a pirated Windows version can be installed in the back room.

Fewt

It’s pretty clear that Mark was a one hit wonder. Really Canonical needs to drop all of their hair brained ideas and refocus on building a single profitable product and once they are out of the red and out of Mark’s wallet, they should then begin to diversify by focusing R&D into other areas, like phones.

Arup

If they can put Ubuntu on waterproof SONY ZR and SONY Z Ultra tab, they are in business.